Ohio woman wears ‘idiot’ sign for driving on sidewalk to pass school bus

Shena Hardin didn't do such a good job the first morning so the judge threatened to supervise

Sometimes it takes more than a small fine or punishment for people to learn their lessons.

A Cleveland judge sentenced 32-year-old Shena Hardin to the public shaming of holding a sign describing her as an "idiot" after she drove on the sidewalk and lawn to pass a school bus while it was unloading children.

She arrived Tuesday morning at the intersection for the first of two mornings with a sign that read, "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." The judge picked the wording. She puffed on a cigarette, wore headphones and ignored reporters as she held the sign. Because of her actions, the judge felt Hardin was missing the point to the punishment and initially planned to personally supervise Hardin Wednesday morning. However, the judge decided she didn't want to cause a scene and told WKYC she was confident Hardin won't drive on the sidewalk again.

Lisa Kelley, whose 9-year-old daughter boards the bus which Hardin has been passing, likes the sentence idea, but doesn't think Hardin will change.

"She's an idiot, just like her sign says," said Kelley as she watched Hardin hold the sign. "She did this almost every day last year...She won't stop laughing. She's not remorseful, she laughed at every court appearance. She's still laughing, so she needs to be humiliated like this."

This isn't the first time we've see someone where a sign on a street corner as punishment. After a 13-year-old boy's mother caught him smoking marijuana, she forced him to walk around a busy intersection wearing a sign that read, "Smoked pot, got caught! Don't I look cool? Not!" On the back it reads "Learn from me, don't do drugs." The mother, April Mathison, said other punishments such as timeouts and taking things away weren't working.